Rest and Renewal

Sometimes I see the Holy Spirit move in the planning process of worship. One would expect the Holy Spirit to move in spontaneous moments as we are gathered, when the Spirit is almost palpable in directing our thoughts, our words, and our movements. But the Spirit also shows up in planning. This weekend, for instance, we knew we would have a more acoustic mix of instrumentalists. So we began planning a quieter set of songs to move us to a place of rest and renewal. And that's where things got really interesting. As we planned, we saw more and more themes of rest and renewal coming out in the lyrics of songs, the prayers, and even the message, planned weeks in advance.

If you arrived early or on time, you surely noticed that we invited you into a quiet space with soft music playing. The lyrics of "Fall Afresh on Me" and "Holy Spirit" invited the Spirit to lead our time. We prayed prayers and had moments of silence. We kept the music intentionally quieter. Everything was designed to be restful.

What you might not have noticed was the very content of the songs, prayers, and passages. For example: did you notice that the first 4 songs spoke to "Lord God Almighty," "Jesus," "Spirit," and "Father"? Did you note the themes of the prayers: repentance, illumination, healing? Did you catch that the songs reflected attitudes of praise, adoration, commitment, and asking God to supply our needs?

Why is all of this important? Because regardless of the form of worship (prayers, songs, meditations, clapping, loud music, traditional music, etc.), the content remains the same: it is the character and story of God. When we are reminded of the fellowship of the Trinity, we can remember that we enjoy that fellowship through Christ, and that can be a comforting thought when we feel alone. When we practice repentance, adoration of Jesus, praise of God, commitment to Him, and asking him to supply, illuminate and heal... when we practice these things on Sunday morning we train ourselves to practice them through the week. When we greet each other and welcome each other, we are reminded Basically, worship is spiritual discipline that helps us follow Christ every day. We could do this through a variety of different forms of worship, but the content is always Christ.

When you worship, do you simply go through the forms, or do you engage your mind, your body, your heart and your soul into the content? Do you let the Spirit remind you of God's constant presence? Do you push aside preferences, distractions, and open yourself to the living God to transform you? I believe that the power of Christ can bring more rest and renewal than anything we might otherwise encounter in life. But only when we invite Him to move in us.